Field
Aspects of the present innovations relate generally to emergency notification systems and more specifically to a system and method for notifying site-based subscribers and public safety personnel that an emergency has occurred at a specific location. Additionally implementations herein may provide real-time information that can utilized by on-site personnel and responding public safety personnel to mitigate the emergency.
Description of Related Information
The 1999 Columbine mass tragedy provoked serious rethinking of the model that law enforcement used to respond to that incident in particular, and, more generally, to shooting rampages involving “active shooters”. Between 1965 and 1999, law enforcement developed and refined a tactical philosophy that stressed prompt containment by patrol officers and activation of specialists—SWAT teams and hostage negotiators—to handle such incidents. Within that framework, patrol officers, the first wave of response, usually arrived on scene in minutes, but lacked the equipment, teamwork and training in advanced tactics to act swiftly and effectively in high-risk incidents. Hence, their immediate focus was scene containment. Conversely, though they had the equipment, teamwork and advanced training to handle such incidents, specialized units often took up to an hour or more to respond and deploy at incident scenes. This state of affairs created a major gap in the law enforcement response to what are now called “active shooter incidents”; that gap, both cognitive and tactical, was a factor in the delay in entering and clearing a recent high school shooting incident quickly. It has led to the development and adoption of “active shooter” protocols throughout U.S. law enforcement.
While law enforcement has adapted quickly in the aftermath of Columbine and developed improved tactics to confront “active shooters” rapidly, school systems within the United States have been slower to adapt. Although protective infrastructure (e.g., fire alarms, sprinklers, CCTV, communication nets, evacuation maps) is standard in many schools to deal with common emergencies, such as fire or hazardous materials that usually require evacuation, shooting threats—particularly in suburban communities—have been largely ignored until Newtown, Connecticut. Interestingly, during the past 25 years, there hasn't been a death attributed to school fires in the United States (excluding dormitory fires). However, more than 200 persons—many of them children and teens—have been killed in “active shooter” incidents over the same period. It is a national tragedy that mass shootings pose the greatest threat to American school children today.
Indoor-gunshot detection technology—integrated into a comprehensive school-police-fire-medical response system—increases significantly the likelihood that active shooter threats will be identified quickly and that alerts will be triggered automatically (school personnel may be unable to send 911 or internal alerts because they are fully engaged in protective actions or themselves under attack). Further, as an integral component of such a system, the technology would promptly notify public safety responders about the nature and location of the incident. It would also make internal notifications to ensure that protective measures are taken throughout the school.